Tag Archives: Bengaluru FC

IMG-Reliance who owns the Indian Super league earlier announced the set of rules and regulations for the second edition of the tournament. You can read it here. Unlike the first season in which there was only a domestic draft for teams to select players from, for the new season teams have the option of selecting from an auction and draft. Here is the List of players up for auction and draft for the second season on Indian Super league. Auction and draft for Indian Super League 2015 will take place in Mumbai on July 10.

I-League runners-up Bengaluru FC have confirmed the signings of attacking duo Kim Seng-Yong and SeiminlenDoungel from Royal Wahingdoh FC and ShillongLajong respectively.

A statement on the Blues’ official website read

Bengaluru FC, on Wednesday, announced the signings of strikers Kim Seng-Yong and Seiminlen Doungel as the Blues are looking to build on what’s been a successful second season where they finished winners of the Federation Cup, runners-up in the I-League and made the last-16 of the AFC Cup.

The Federation Cup winners were on the look for a new striker, after Australian striker Sean Rooney’s contract with the Blues expired at the end of the current campaign.

And the champions of last year have signed an experienced campaigner in North Korean Kim to replace the departing Australian. The former Rangdajied United man is a prolific goalscorer, and found the back of the net five teams to propel his side to an impressive 3rd placed finish. The 28-year-old has penned a one-year-deal, with Bengaluru having the choice to extend it for another year.

Talking to the official website, Kim said, “I am extremely happy to have signed for Bengaluru FC. I consider myself lucky to have been given a chance to play for a club like this. They have done an amazing job on and off the pitch over the past two years. I am looking forward to playing under the guidance of Ashley Westwood and the rest of the staff, and I will do my best to contribute towards the team’s success on all fronts.”

Bengaluru’s second addition comes in the form of 21-year-old Shillong forward Seiminlen Doungel. The Manipur born JCT youth product was excited on signing for the Blues, and will present with more options for manager Ashley Westwood upfront.

“It makes me happy to say that I am part of Bengaluru FC. It’s a club where I know I will improve as a player and I cannot wait to be a part of wonderful things the club does,”the former East Bengal man said.

Club COO Mustafa Ghouse meanwhile said of the players that the duo were on the club’s radar for a while, and they are happy to have finally landed their targets.

“Kim and Len are both very talented players and have been on our radar for some time now. We are certain the fans will be happy to see them in the BFC blue next season, just as we are. We would also like to thank Sean Rooney whose contribution to the club in our first two seasons has been immense and we wish him all the best for his future endeavors”

Leave your thoughts in the comments below or discuss with the writer on Twitter: @sunilmarkal17

AIFF has pronounced its verdict on what transpired in Bengaluru during the Bengaluru FC vs Mumbai FC match. A lot has been discussed on the social media and other forums about the conduct of the fans and officials.

Now that the verdict is out, we are publishing a short note from a person who is closely connected to football in Bangalore. He knows the Bangalore football scene very well and this is his take on whether the fans should indulge in abusive chants and if so what is the limit. He wish to remain anonymous, so we are not going to publish his name.

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This write up is after the BFC vs. Mumbai FC game in Kanteerava stadium, which ended in a 1-1 draw. I decided to write this for all the fans who have been supporting their club to the best, but also indulge in abusing and use foul language on opponents and their staff.

My friends and I sat in west block A to watch the game and as the players entered, there were cheers and claps for players of BFC, which was a nice thing. Once the Mumbai FC players entered the field and as the game kicked off, I was kind of feeling very bad to hear abuses being hurled at Khali Jamil and their player right from the start whistle. Families who turned up with their kids for the match were feeling discomfort because of the abusive nature of the chants and I did even see some families who had come for the match moving away from the crowd.

Come on, are we cheering the club and encouraging them or the fans wants to just have fun abusing and using foul language on the opponents and coaches, make them furious and in the end get to see what happened in that game?

India is not a country where football is the richest game unlike cricket. If it were, then no one would even bother about all the nonsense people talk. Most of the clubs in India are run with less funds, no proper facilities, unlike a professional setup like BFC who has made huge investments and provide best facilities for players to perform to their best. Most clubs do not even pay salaries to players on a regular basis and not all football players are from well-to-do families to let go everything. Most players are struggling to live a good life and they have to struggle and sacrifice a lot to play in our top tier league – I-league.

Let us also not to forget that BFC is one of the first corporate entities to have invested in Indian football, and they have all the means to provide the best facilities for players to perform well, which is very much appreciated, but that doesn’t mean fans who go to watch matches abuse and insult other clubs and players who are struggling every year to sign good players and form a decent team to play in the league.

Most of the clubs are operating with a much lesser budget/investment than that of BFC. Mumbai FC was about to be shut down like Mahindra United and had not signed a single player even when they had just one month for the deadline as they couldn’t rope in a sponsor for the club. Finally, after roping in a sponsor, they mostly signed players who were either rejected by other clubs and a few were retained from their previous squad.

They struggle so much and though being an underdog club, when they take on most clubs, they still manage to put in decent to good performances. In all their four matches against BFC before this, they managed a draw and I consider that a commendable feat.

Therefore, how the fans behave in stadiums is what the outcome they get too. Abusing, provoking and using foul language on players and coaches for no reason would definitely leave anyone angered and flustered. The composition of players in I-league is seeing a drastic change now. We have some foreigners who have played world cup for their nations. Abusing and taunting players of such stature does not hold good for our football. We have to learn from better players and start playing good football because football should not end just with clubs. It has to take Indian football to higher standards.

Go out in large numbers to support BFC but never indulge in abusing or insulting opponents. We may never know the struggle of the club and the players are undergoing to keep them going at this level.

Football can become a popular game in any country only when there are more number of people attending matches and if that has to happen, the fans who go the to cheer the teams should cheer good football . When I mean good football, even if the away team plays fair and good football we should have the heart to appreciate that too. Now, if cheering or appreciating the opponent team is difficult, let us not indulge in mindless abuse. Let us all enjoy the beautiful game in a beautiful way.

Age cheating in football is a serious issue that plagues Indian football. With permission We reproduce this article written by Richard Hood, who is the head of youth development at Bengaluru FC.

Cheating at the Youth Level: An Essay

A few months ago I had to release one of my players from our Under 19 squad letting him know that he is now too old to continue with us and his performances have not been enough to convince the first team to sign him. His response to the situation was more inspiring than surprising or insulting. He pointed a finger right back at me and let me know straight up the damages the age rigging problem is doing to youth football. I am dead against age-rigging and have been standing up against it wherever I have worked for years now.

The age rigging issue is rampant in Indian football where it’s easy for an 18 year old to become 15 again and buy himself 24-36 more months of development in the game. They usually turn out to be exceptional at 16 (because they are maybe 20) and later just burn out of join the ranks of other mediocre players.

This player started in the game at a really young age with every hope to make it as a professional and worked harder than anyone I know to get there. His frustrations and disgust at seeing boys as old or older than him changing their age to become 3-4 years younger are expressed vividly in an essay titled “The Sleeping Giant” which he intended to share with anyone in the media willing to publish it.

It’s been a few weeks since he sent it across to me and I am keen to share it with people who are involved in the game at whatever level in India or overseas to understand how damaging such practices that are now considered ‘acceptable’ can be.

THE SLEEPING GIANT

Much has been said and written about the coming of age of Indian football. With the advent of ISL and the entry and triumph of corporate big wigs such as JSW in the I-League, football in India definitely seems to be on the right track. The country has seen an increase in professionalism, inflow of capital and foreign expertise in the recent past. FIFA President, Sep Blatter referred to India as the ‘Sleeping Giant’. He of course was referring to India’s untapped potential with respect to the development of the sport in the country.

The term Sleeping giant, however, is better suited to describe the apathy, silence and ignorance of the football fraternity here in India to an issue that is probably the deadliest hindrance to the growth of the sport in India, AGE CHEATING. I have never come across a single article bemoaning over the issue in any of the sports websites or newspapers. More importantly, no prolific figure of the sport in India has voiced his opinion about the issue. One would argue that to be the case as these prolific figures might themselves be age cheats.

The past one and a half years of my life have been a real eye opener. Having been part of a professional youth setup, I was made to look outside the cushioned bubble I lived in. Having been to state trials earlier, I was aware of such unethical practices being carried out by players but the extent and prevalence of age cheating was only made aware to me during my short stint as a youth player. I was ready to quit the team after the first season itself as these practices were just not in cognizance with my conscience.

Here I was, waking up at five every morning to go and train with players who, with the exception of a few, were all age cheats. It was appalling to see players in their mid twenties posing as 17 year olds and to see 18/19 year olds changing their date of birth, to, in their words, to having been born in the year ‘two thousand zero’. Words cannot describe how gratifying it is to have been officially released from a system that is characterized by such lies.

My team mates were all extremely gifted, hard working and professional, but, they were also liars. They are not to be blamed though. More often than not, coaches and state associations pressurize the players to fudge their age just so they can achieve short term results. These institutions and institutional coaches have been cursed with short sightedness. Their inability to look well and beyond the near future casts a dim shadow over the future of the players itself. We would be fools to think that this is a practice native just to the state of Karnataka.

The evil transcends state boundaries and even finds it’s well deserved place in the national stage too. The under 19 I-league is merely a façade, much more like an open age tournament. The legitimate youth players would benefit playing against older men, they would only reap these benefits if people differentiated between the genuine and the fake.

The recently shut AIFF Regional Academy in Bangalore was an under 14 academy on paper, so were the boys. Remember, just on paper! Most of the boys were well over 14. I had the humbling privilege to play with a cadet of this academy, who goes to a degree college and is just fourteen! Bangalore’s very own Doogie Hoswer, eh?

It’s not merely youth academies of local clubs, state teams or the regional academies that are privy to this fallacious practice. Abhilash, a friend of mine attended the IMG Soccer Academy located at Bradenton, Florida where he crossed paths with the then Indian under-sixteen team in 2012. The lies resonated even over there! One of the officials present at Bradenton even asked Abhilash to change his age just so he could train with the Indian team.

The ease at which one can attain a fake birth certificate is to be blamed for all the mess. It’s disheartening to see that even the sporting world cannot break free from the cuffs of corruption. I refer to it as cuffs, as it is a vicious circle, one that is particularly hard to break free from. Most players come from poor families, without legitimate opportunities to be educated; football is the lifeguard that could save them from the perils of poverty. Having come across senior footballers fudge their age, the younger ones are tempted to seem younger by a year or five. These young lads will one day turn professional and the next generation will follow suit.
However, there are a few solutions to this issue.

The wonderful people over at Bengaluru Football Club have come up with the most effective one. The club has set in place academies for age groups starting as young as under 9s. This not only aids in breeding players from a young age, it also adds as an official documentation of the players’ ages, thus, eliminating the possibility of the players fudging their age at a later date. Having said that, BFC is too small a club to be considered a breakthrough catalyst as its geographical reach is very limited. We need such systems in place across the country for us to see an improvement in the next decade or two.

The I-league season ahead promises to be a very exciting one, with the fresh influx of youth from various academies throughout the country. The Bengaluru fanatics are eager to watch BFC’s latest signing, Udanta Singh, merely eighteen years of age, terrorize defenders with his pace and of course, dazzle the fans with his youth.

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The player is now studying for a Degree in Law and Management at a top University in Bangalore. He has committed that once done with his education and making a mark on the sporting world an administrator he is going to take the problem head on and do his best to bring it to an end.

We are tackling the issue aggressively and the composition of squads in our club’s youth program over the last 2 years has transformed to accommodate players who are as old as their birth certificate states they are. Rather drop points than cheat!

SAP Labs India today announced that for Bengaluru Football Club (BFC), it has created a state of the art, innovative mobile application to unify the club’s growing fan base. Developed ahead of BFC’s second campaign in the I-League which kicks off on January, 17, 2015, the multi-featured application allows for superior fan engagement through social activities and communities, match day experience sharing, group discounts, news and updates, and real time visualization.

Technology today provides sports organizations with the opportunity to connect with fans by transforming interactions through online channels, mobile, and social media. BFC is a good example of this, having grown its following with dedicated fan pages and communities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter with over 61,000 likes and 7500 followers, respectively.

“As a club based in India’s technology capital and aiming to be the best in Asia, we are constantly researching new and emerging ways to provide our fans with opportunities to connect with Bengaluru FC. Partnering with SAP, which provides innovative software solutions, will only deepen the connect and engagement that we wish to have with our growing fan-base.” said Mustafa Ghouse, COO of Bengaluru FC.

With the adoption of an easily extensible and scalable architecture, users of the BFC customized mobile application will have intuitive card based content staging and easy navigation through and within sections. Fans also receive context relevant news and updates. Some unique features of the app include ‘Swarm’, a real time visualization of how fans converge towards the stadium or other hangouts, including Arbor Brewing Company, the home pub for the season; and ‘Share-a-Ride’ which allows fans to carpool to the stadium on game day.

“SAP is transforming the sports and entertainment industry across the world through new technologies and platforms. In this instance, our technology is enabling Bengaluru FC to deliver a consistent and engaging fan experience.” said Dilipkumar Khandelwal, MD, SAP Labs India, EVP & Head of Suite Engineering, Products and Innovation.

According to a report in Gulf News, Bengaluru FC coach Ashley Westwood has expressed interest in taking up the coaching role of Indian national team. All India Football Federation has to scout for a new manager for the national team after the current coach Wim Koevermans recently stepped down.

Ashely Westwood guided Bengaluru FC to last season’s I-league title. This was a remarkable achievement since it was Bengaluru FC’s debut appearance in India’s top tier league. Previously he has donned the role of assistant coach at English clubs; Portsmouth, Blackpool and Blackburn Rovers.

“If they think I’m good enough then obviously they would have to approach the club, but I don’t really know how that works, I’m just interested in doing a good job for whoever that would be. I’ve studied the opposition throughout India and watched a lot of football and I’ve watched it for a purpose and I’m learning all the time. That’s what I want to keep doing, I want to keep learning and striving and bettering myself, said Ashley Westwood to Gulf News.

Even though the term Bangalored has a negative connotation to it, when you see what unfolded in the 2013-2014 I-league season, it is pretty much obvious that Bengaluru FC Bangalored the I-league title. Since its inception in 2007, I-league has been synonymous to the victory of Goan clubs. In 2013-14 season, Bengaluru FC smoothly captured the reigns and brought the title home!

When Bengaluru FC backed by JSW was announced in July 2013, two tasks were in front of them. Of course building competitive team would have been the first priority, but the second wouldn’t have been that easy. Bangalore is a football loving city, when local clubs like ITI and HAL play, a good number of crowd is present in the stadium cheering these teams. The challenge in front of the newly formed Bengaluru FC would have been to appease the traditional football crowd and attract a new gamut of crowd who are mainly followers of European football. With 23 matches into the league and the title in pocket, it is obvious that Bengaluru FC managed this fete with aplomb. With promotions, smart tie-ups and social media presence, the club managed an average attendance of 7500 in every home match.

The team, captained by national captain Sunil Chhetri also lived up to the expectations. When the club was formed in July, there were not many players to choose from as other clubs had already snapped up players. However, shrewd recruitment and excellent coaching from Ashley Westwood saw many players who were earlier bench-warming with other clubs rise to the occasion. Players like Beikhokhei Beingaichho, Darren Caldeira and Thoi Singh are prime examples. While all other I-league clubs hired and fired overseas players all through the season, Bengaluru FC’s foreign contingent has been top performers for the team.

With high attendance on even week-days, Bengaluru FC with their vociferous supporters made the home turf an impregnable fortress. Of the twelve home matches, they lost a match, drew four and won all others. Though there were frailties in away matches, the team managed to rope in victories while traveling too. With winning the I-league title, AFC Champions League matches will be on cards for Bangalore.

Bengaluru FC has been a fresh whiff of air in the otherwise morose footballing scene in India. It is almost like after the team was formed they never put a foot wrong. Let us hope Bengaluru FC’s success is emulated by other I-league clubs by reinventing themselves.

In an evenly contested match in Goa, Bengaluru FC outplayed Goan giants Dempo SC to become the champions of I-league. Considering this is the very first season for Bengaluru FC in I-league makes it even more special. I-League, since its inception in 2007 has never seen a champion other than Goan teams. Bengaluru FC has broken the monopoly of Goan teams in the league.

Many thanks to awesome matches and atmosphere at the Bangalore Football stadium. More over, hearty Congratulations to the crew at Bengaluru FC!

Cash strapped United SC is planning to divest shares and is looking for potential suitors from Kerala, reports Malayalam media.

United SC official Nabab Bhattacharya is quoted in Malayala Manorama saying that maintaining a foreign coach and foreign players for the last six months without any sponsors has hurt the club massively and hence they are planning to divest shares. Nabab also said that even though there are many footballers in Kerala with some playing in I-league, the state do not have a club representation in the national league. This is also a factor in seeking avenues from Kerala.

C.K Vineeth who is currently on loan to Bengaluru FC and K. Asif were the Malayali players in United SC. Dutch coach Eelco Schattorie quit the club earlier due to financial constraints and reports have surfaced today that their star Nigerian striker Ranti Martins will be moving to the Shillong outfit Rangdajied United on loan.

The move to seek investors from Kerala could be a last ditch effort to save the sinking club. We will have to wait and watch if any investors from kerala would come and rescue this reasonably successful and established club from Kolkata. If that happens would the club move to Kerala lock, stock and barrel? We will soon find answers.